William George Meany (August 16, 1894 – January 10, 1980) was an American

labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

administrator for 57 years. He was important for the creation of the

AFL–CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million ac ...

and served as the AFL–CIO's first president, from 1955 to 1979. Meany, the son of a union plumber, became a plumber himself at a young age. He became a full-time union official 12 years later. As an officer of the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...

, he represented the AFL on the National War Labor Board during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He served as president of the AFL from 1952 to 1955. He proposed its merger with the

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...

(CIO) in 1952 and managed the negotiations until the merger was completed in 1955. He then served as president of the merged

for the next 24 years. Meany had a reputation for integrity and consistent opposition to corruption in the

labor movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

, and strong

anti-communism Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...

. He was one of the best known union administrators in the United States during the mid-20th century.

Early years

Meany was born into a Roman Catholic family in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on August 16, 1894, the second of 10 children. His parents were Michael Meany and Anne Cullen Meany, who were both American-born and of Irish descent. His ancestors had immigrated to the United States during the 1850s. His father was a plumber and served as president of his plumber's union local. Michael Meany was also a precinct level activist in the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. Meany grew up in the Port Morris neighborhood of

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, where his parents had relocated when he was five years old. Always called "George", he learned that his real first name was William only when he got a work permit as a teenager. Meany quit high school at age 16 to become a plumber like his father, beginning work as a plumber's helper. He then served a five-year apprenticeship as a plumber and got his journeyman's certificate in 1917, with Local 463 United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters of the United States and Canada. His father died of

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

in 1916 after a bout of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

. When Meany's older brother joined the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

in 1917, George became the sole source of income for his mother and six younger siblings. He supplemented his income for a while by playing as a semiprofessional baseball catcher. In 1919, he married Eugenia McMahon, a garment worker and a member of the

International Ladies Garment Workers Union The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), whose members were employed in the Clothing#Gender differentiation, women's clothing industry, was once one of the largest trade union, labor unions in the United States, one of the firs ...

. They had three daughters.

Beginning of union career in New York

In 1920, Meany was elected to the executive board of Local 463 of the Plumber's Union. In 1922, he became a full-time business agent for the local, which had 3,600 members at that time. Meany later stated that he had never walked a

picket line A picket line is a horizontal rope along which horses are tied at intervals. The rope can be on the ground, at chest height (above the knees, below the neck) or overhead. The overhead form is usually called a high line. A variant of a high li ...

during his plumber's union days, explaining that his original plumber's union never needed to picket, because the employers never attempted to replace the workers. In 1923, he was elected secretary of the New York City Building Trades Council, the city federation of unions representing construction workers. He won a court injunction against an industry lockout in 1927, which was then considered an innovative tactic for a union, and was opposed by many of the older union administrators. In 1934, he became president of the New York State Federation of Labor, the statewide coalition of trade unions. During his first year of lobbying in Albany, the state capital, 72 bills that he promoted to the state legislature were enacted into law, and he developed a close working relationship with Governor

Herbert H. Lehman Herbert Henry Lehman (March 28, 1878 – December 5, 1963) was an American Democratic Party politician from New York. He served from 1933 until 1942 as the 45th governor of New York and represented New York State in the U.S. Senate from 194 ...

. He developed a reputation for honesty, diligence and the ability to testify effectively before legislative hearings and to speak well to the press. In 1936, he cofounded the

American Labor Party The American Labor Party (ALP) was a political party in the United States established in 1936 that was active almost exclusively in the state of New York. The organization was founded by labor leaders and former members of the Socialist Party of ...

, a pro-union political party active in New York, along with

David Dubinsky David Dubinsky (; born David Isaac Dobnievski; February 22, 1892 – September 17, 1982) was a Belarusian-born American labor leader and politician. He served as president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) between 1932 ...

and

Sidney Hillman Sidney Hillman (March 23, 1887 – July 10, 1946) was an American labor leader. He was the head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and in marshaling labor' ...

, partly to organize support among union socialists for the re-election that year of President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

and mayor

Fiorello La Guardia Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...

National leadership in Washington, DC

Three years later, he relocated to Washington, D.C., to become national secretary-treasurer of the

, where he served AFL president William Green. During

, Meany was one of the permanent representatives of the AFL to the National War Labor Board. During the war, he established close relationships with prominent anticommunists in the American

, including

Jay Lovestone Jay Lovestone (15 December 1897 – 7 March 1990) was an American activist. He was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Centr ...

and

Matthew Woll Matthew Woll (January 25, 1880 – June 1, 1956) was president of the International Photo-Engravers Union of North America from 1906 to 1929, an American Federation of Labor (AFL) vice president from 1919 to 1955 and an AFL-CIO vice president ...

. In October 1945, he organized the AFL boycott of the founding conference of the

World Federation of Trade Unions The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade unions established in 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the International Federation of ...

, which welcomed participation by labor unions from the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

and was later called a

communist front A communist front is a political organization identified as a front organization under the effective control of a communist party, the Communist International or other communist organizations. They attracted politicized individuals who were not pa ...

. The labor strikes of 1945-1946, which were organized to a large extent by CIO unions, resulted in passage of the

Taft Hartley Act Taft most commonly refers to William Howard Taft (1857–1930), 27th president of the United States. Taft may also refer to: People * Taft (surname), including a list of people with the name * Taft family, a political dynasty that includes Pr ...

in 1947, which was perceived widely as anti-union. One provision required union officials to sign loyalty oaths affirming that they were not communists; this had a major effect on the CIO unions. Meany, in opposition to

John L. Lewis John Llewellyn Lewis (February 12, 1880 – June 11, 1969) was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) from 1920 to 1960. A major player in the history of coal mining, he was the d ...

and other leftist union leaders, replied that he would "go further and sign an affidavit that I was never a comrade to the comrades" since he had always ostracized communists. Within a year, most US union administrators unaffiliated with the Communist Party signed the affidavit, later upheld by the Supreme Court, which ruled in 1949 that the Communist Party was unique among American political parties in swearing allegiance to a foreign power.

Merger of AFL and CIO

When Green's health began failing in 1951, Meany gradually assumed day-to-day operations of the AFL. He became president of the American Federation of Labor in 1952 upon Green's death. Meany quickly took effective control of the AFL, and proposed to merge with the CIO. It took longer for

Walter Reuther Walter Philip Reuther (; September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was an American leader of Labor unions in the United States, organized labor and Civil rights movements, civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of ...

to complete his control of the CIO, but when he did he became a willing partner in the merger negotiations. It took Meany three years to negotiate the merger, and he had to overcome significant opposition.

of the

United Mine Workers The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the Unit ...

termed the merger a "rope of sand", and his union refused to join the AFL–CIO.

Jimmy Hoffa James Riddle Hoffa (born February 14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975; declared dead July 30, 1982) was an American labor union leader who served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) from 1957 until 1971. F ...

, second in command of the Teamster's Union, protested, "What's in it for us? Nothing!" However, the Teamsters complied with the merger initially.

Mike Quill Michael Joseph "Red Mike" Quill (September 18, 1905 – January 28, 1966) was one of the founders of the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), a union founded by subway workers in New York City that expanded to represent employees in oth ...

, president of the

Transport Workers Union of America Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) is a United States labor union that was founded in 1934 by subway workers in New York City, then expanded to represent transit employees in other cities, primarily in the eastern U.S. This article disc ...

also fought the merger, saying that it amounted to a capitulation to the "racism, racketeering and

raiding Raiding may refer to: * The present participle of the verb Raid (disambiguation), which itself has several meanings * Raid (military) * Raid (video games), a group of video game players who join forces * Raiding, Austria, a town in Austria * Par ...

" of the AFL. Fearing a drawn-out negotiation process, Meany decided on a "short route" to reconciliation. This meant all AFL and CIO unions would be accepted into the new organization "as is", with all conflicts and overlaps to be sorted out after the merger. Meany further relied on a small, select group of advisors to craft the necessary agreements. The draft constitution was written primarily by AFL Vice President

and CIO General Counsel

Arthur Goldberg Arthur Joseph Goldberg (August 8, 1908January 19, 1990) was an American statesman and jurist who served as the 9th U.S. Secretary of Labor, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the 6th United States Ambassador to ...

, while the joint policy statements were written by Woll, CIO Secretary-Treasurer James Carey, CIO vice presidents David McDonald and

Joseph Curran Joseph Curran (March 1, 1906 – August 14, 1981) was a merchant seaman and an American labor leader. He was founding president of the National Maritime Union (or NMU, now part of the Seafarers International Union of North America) from 1937 to ...

, Brotherhood of Railway Clerks President

George McGregor Harrison George McGregor Harrison (July 19, 1895 – November 30, 1968) was an American leader of organized labor who built the Brotherhood of Railway & Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express & Station Employes into one of the "largest and best-go ...

, and Illinois AFL–CIO President

Reuben Soderstrom Reuben George Soderstrom (March 10, 1888 – December 15, 1970) was an American leader of organized labor who served as President of the Illinois State Federation of Labor (ISFL) and Illinois AFL-CIO from 1930 to 1970. A key figure in Chicago an ...

. Meany's efforts came to fruition in December 1955 with a joint convention in New York City that merged the two federations, creating the

, with Meany elected as president. Termed Meany's "greatest achievement" by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine, the new federation had 15 million members. Only two million US workers were members of unions remaining outside the AFL–CIO.

Campaigns against corrupt unions

In 1953, the

International Longshoremen's Association The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) is a North American labor union representing longshore workers along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, Puerto Rico, and inland waterways. The ILA h ...

, accused of racketeering, was expelled from the AFL, an early example of Meany's efforts against corruption and organized crime in unions. After internal reform, it was readmitted to the now-merged AFL–CIO, in 1959. Meany also fought corruption in the AFL affiliated

United Textile Workers of America The United Textile Workers of America (UTW) was a North American trade union established in 1901. History The United Textile Workers of America was founded following two conferences in 1901 under the aegis of the American Federation of Labor (AFL ...

from 1952. In 1957, he reported that the president of that union had been stealing more than $250,000. Meany also appointed an independent monitor to oversee reform of the union. Concerns about corruption and the influence of organized crime in the

International Brotherhood of Teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the un ...

, managed by

Dave Beck David Daniel Beck (June 16, 1894December 26, 1993) was an American labor leader, and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1952 to 1957. He helped found the "Conference" system of organization in the Teamsters union, and s ...

, caused Meany to begin a campaign to reform that union in 1956. In 1957, amidst a fight for control of the union with

, Beck was called before the

United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management The United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management (also known as the McClellan Committee) was a select committee created by the United States Senate on January 30, 1957,Hilty, James. ''Robert Kennedy: Brot ...

, commonly known as the "McClellan Committee" after its chairman

John Little McClellan John Little McClellan (February 25, 1896 – November 28, 1977) was an American lawyer and a segregationist politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Representative (1935–1939) and a U.S. Senator (1943–1977) from ...

, of

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

. Televised hearings during early 1957 exposed misconduct by both the Beck and the Hoffa factions of the Teamsters Union. Both Hoffa and Beck were indicted, but Hoffa won control of the Teamsters. In response, the AFL–CIO instituted a policy that no union official who had taken the Fifth Amendment during a corruption investigation could continue in a leadership position. Meany told the Teamsters that they could continue as members of the AFL–CIO if Hoffa resigned as president. Hoffa refused, and the Teamsters were ousted from the AFL–CIO on December 6, 1957. Meany endorsed the AFL–CIO's adoption of a code of ethics, after the scandal. Meany also organized campaigns against organized crime and corruption in the International Jewelry Workers Union, the

Laundry Workers International Union The Laundry Workers' International Union (LWIU) was a labor union representing laundry workers in the United States. The union was founded in November 1900 at a congress in Troy, New York, as the Shirt, Waist and Laundry Workers' International Uni ...

, the AFL Distillery Workers, the AFL

United Auto Workers The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico ...

, and the Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union. He demanded the dismissal of corrupt union officials and internal reorganization of the unions. When some unions resisted, he organized their expulsion from the AFL and later from the AFL–CIO, and he even established rival unions. He established an AFL–CIO Committee on Ethical Practices to investigate misconduct and insisted for unions being investigated to co-operate with its inquiries. According to John Hutchinson, a professor at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, "few American union leaders have such a public record of repeated and explicit opposition to corruption".

Vietnam War

Meany consistently defended President

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

policies. In 1966, Meany insisted for AFL–CIO unions to give "unqualified support" to Johnson's war policy. AFL–CIO critics opposing Meany and the war at that time included

Ralph Helstein Ralph Helstein (11 December 1908 - 14 February 1985) was an American trade unionist and labour leader best known for leading the United Packinghouse Workers of America The United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA), later the ''United Packin ...

of the

United Packinghouse Workers of America The United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA), later the ''United Packinghouse, Food and Allied Workers'', was a labor union that represented workers in the meatpacking industry. Origin as the PWOC Background Between the mid-1800s and mid-1 ...

, George Burdon of the United Rubberworkers and Patrick Gorman of the United Auto Workers. Charles Cogen, president of the

American Federation of Teachers The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders. About 60 perc ...

opposed Meany in 1967, when the AFL–CIO convention adopted a resolution pledging support for the war in Vietnam. Reuther stated that he was busy with negotiations with General Motors in Detroit and could not attend the convention. In his speech to the convention, Meany said that, regarding Vietnam the AFL–CIO was "neither hawk nor dove nor chicken" but was supporting "brother trade unionists" struggling against Communism. As an anticommunist who identified with the working class, Meany expressed contempt for the

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...

. That philosophy had often criticized the labor activists for conservatism, racism, and anticommunism, and during the late 1960s and early 1970s, it included many promoters of Communism, such as the Viet Cong. In the aftermath of the violence by antiwar demonstrators and police at the

1968 Democratic National Convention The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held August 26–29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Earlier that year incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection, thus making ...

, Meany sympathized with the police by terming the protesters a "dirtynecked and dirty-mouthed group of kooks". Meany opposed the antiwar candidacy of U. S. Senator

George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 pres ...

for the presidency against incumbent Richard Nixon in 1972 despite McGovern's generally pro-labor voting record in Congress. However he refused to endorse Nixon. On '' Face the Nation'' in September 1972, Meany criticized McGovern's statements that the US should respect other peoples' rights to choose communism by saying that there had never been a country that had voted freely for communism. Meany accused McGovern of being "an apologist for the Communist world". After Nixon's landslide defeat of McGovern, Meany said that the American people had "overwhelmingly repudiated neo-isolationism" in foreign policy. Meany said that the American voters had split their votes by endorsing the Democrats in Congress. Meany's support for the war effort continued to the final days before

Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

was captured by the North Vietnamese in April, 1975. He called for President

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

to provide a US Navy "flotilla" if it was needed to ensure that hundreds of thousands of "friends of the United States" could escape before a communist regime could be established. He also appealed for the admission of the maximum possible number of Vietnamese refugees to the United States. Meany blamed Congress for "washing its hands" of the war and of weakening South Vietnam's military, damaging its "will to fight". In particular, Meany accused Congress of failing to provide adequate funding for US troops to stage an orderly withdrawal.

Conflict with Reuther

Despite their co-operation for the AFL–CIO merger, Meany and Reuther had a contentious relationship for many years. In 1963, Meany and Reuther disagreed about the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a major event in the history of the civil rights movement in the United States. Meany opposed AFL–CIO endorsement of the march. In an AFL–CIO executive council meeting on August 12, Reuther's motion for a strong endorsement of the march was supported by only

A. Philip Randolph Asa Philip Randolph (April 15, 1889 – May 16, 1979) was an American labor unionist and civil rights activist. In 1925, he organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful African-American led labor union. In ...

of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the titular leader of the march. The AFL–CIO endorsed a civil rights law and allowed individual unions to endorse the march. When Meany heard Randolph's speech after the march, he was visibly moved. Thereafter, he supported the creation of the

A. Philip Randolph Institute The A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) is an organization for African-American trade unionists. APRI advocates social, labor, and economic change at the state and federal level, using legal and legislative means. History In response to the 1963 ...

to strengthen labor unions among African Americans and to strengthen ties with the African American community. Randolph said that he was sure that Meany was morally opposed to racism. At the time of the 1967 AFL–CIO convention, Reuther demanded that Meany make the AFL–CIO more democratic. After years of disagreement with Meany, Reuther resigned from the AFL–CIO executive council in February 1967. In 1968, Reuther's UAW withdrew from the AFL–CIO, and the UAW did not re-affiliate with the AFL–CIO until 1981, long after Reuther's death in a 1970 airplane crash.

Political goals

Amidst of the Great Society reforms advocated by President Johnson, Meany and the AFL–CIO in 1965 endorsed a resolution calling for "mandatory congressional price hearings for corporations, a technological clearinghouse, and a national planning agency". American socialist Michael Harrington commented that the AFL–CIO had "initiated a programmatic redefinition that had much more in common with the defeated socialist proposal of 1894 than with the voluntarism of Gompers" referring to Samuel Gompers, the founder of the AFL, who had openly opposed socialism for decades. The 1965 resolution was part of the AFL–CIO's ongoing endorsement of industrial democracy. Despite Meany's support for reform policies that were sometimes termed "socialist", he also said that "I very much agree with the free market system-" Meany said, "When you don't have anything, you have nothing to lose by these radical actions. But when you become a person who has a home and has property, to some extent you become conservative." As AFL–CIO president, Meany supported increasing the minimum wage, increasing public works spending, and protecting union organizing rights. He also endorsed universal health care. While he was president, the AFL–CIO lobbied vigorously for its goals. He backed the two party system, and believed in "supporting your friends and punishing your enemies".

Later years and death

By the mid-1970s, Meany was past his 80th birthday and there were increasing calls for him to retire and pass the presidency of the AFL–CIO to a younger man. During his final years, Meany adopted amateur photography and painting as hobbies. in June 1975 Meany as president of the AFL–CIO hosted

Alexander Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...

in his tour of the USA and had a dinner in Solzhenitsyn's honor where the Russian writer gave one of his most well known speeches. Meany introduced Solzhenitsyn with a powerful speech. Meany's wife of 59 years, Eugenia, died in March 1979, and he became depressed after losing her. He injured his knee in a golfing mishap a few months before his death and was reliant on a wheelchair. In November 1979, he retired from the AFL–CIO, after a 57-year career in organized labor. He was succeeded by Lane Kirkland, who served as AFL–CIO president for the next 16 years. Meany died at George Washington University Hospital on January 10, 1980, of cardiac arrest. The AFL–CIO had 14 million members at the time of his death. President Jimmy Carter termed him "an American institution" and "a patriot". He was interred at

Gate of Heaven Cemetery Gate of Heaven Cemetery, approximately 25 miles (40 km) north of New York City, was established in 1917 at 10 West Stevens Ave. in Hawthorne, Westchester County, New York, as a Roman Catholic burial site. Among its famous residents is b ...

in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Awards, tributes and legacy

President John F. Kennedy established the Presidential Medal of Freedom on February 22, 1963, but died before he could award it. Two weeks after Kennedy's assassination, President

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

awarded it to Meany and thirty others on December 6, 1963. Johnson said the award was for Meany's service to unionism and for advancing freedom throughout the world. On November 6, 1974, Meany dedicated the George Meany Center for Labor Studies (founded 1969), which was renamed the

National Labor College The National Labor College was a college for union members and their families, union leaders and union staff in Silver Spring, Maryland. Established as a training center by the AFL–CIO in 1969 to strengthen union member education and organizin ...

in 1997. From 1993 to 2013, the college housed the George Meany Memorial Archives. In 2013 the archival and library holdings were transferred to the

University of Maryland libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an of ...

, making the university the official repository. The holdings date from the establishment of the AFL (1881), and offer almost complete records from the founding of the AFL–CIO (1955). Among the estimated 40 million documents are AFL–CIO Department records, trade department records, international union records, union programs, union organizations with allied or affiliate relationships with the AFL–CIO, and personal papers of union leaders. Extensive photo documentation of labor union activities from the 1940s to the present are in the photographic negative and digital collections. Additionally, collections of graphic images, over 10,000 audio tapes, several hundred movies and videotapes, and more than 2,000 artifacts are available for public research and study. The George Meany Award was established by the Boy Scouts of America in 1974. Books published about Meany include ''Meany: The Unchallenged Strong Man of American Labor'' (1972) and ''George Meany and His Times: A Biography'' (1981). Meany's entry in the biographical encyclopedia '' American National Biography'' was published in 2000, authored by historian David Brody. Meany was known as a cigar smoker, and pictures of him often appeared in newspapers and magazines smoking a cigar. On the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1994, Meany was pictured on a United States commemorative postage stamp.

References

External links

George Meany (1894–1980) AFL-CIO biography

George Meany Memorial AFL-CIO Archives
at the University of Maryland's Hornbake Library *
Virginia Tehas Oral History interview
at the

. Tehas was Meany's secretary from 1940 to 1979, and the interviews include her insight on working for Meany. {{DEFAULTSORT:Meany, George 1894 births 1980 deaths Presidents of the American Federation of Labor Secretary-Treasurers of the American Federation of Labor Presidents of the AFL–CIO People from the Bronx People from City Island, Bronx Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients American plumbers Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Laetare Medal recipients Burials at Gate of Heaven Cemetery (Silver Spring, Maryland) Trade unionists from New York (state) American trade unionists of Irish descent 20th-century Roman Catholics Catholics from New York (state) American anti-communists Activists from Washington, D.C. American anti-corruption activists